Isis Wins

The reality is that ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban and their derivatives have won the war on terror not on the battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the American people. The terrorists have succeeded, with our full cooperation, in turning us against each other. And with that the terrorists win.

The attack on 9/11/01 was a vicious assault on our national security, financial wealth and sense of safety in our communities. That day 2,977 Americans died and there were 25,000 injuries. In the years since then, many of the first responders have become ill and died from exposure to toxic chemicals. There was over ten billion dollars in damage to property and infrastructure. It was catastrophic. America’s sense of safety and security was shattered.

We counterattacked in numerous, often nonsensical, ways including the invasion of Iraq and occupation of Afghanistan. We have crushed the terrorists like the bugs they are on every battlefield where we met them head on. They simply do not have the technological capability to match our superior manpower or weaponry. In Syria we unleashed our military capability and simply bombed their last stronghold back to the stone age. Unfortunately, they have crawled back under the rocks from which they originally emerged and now wait for us to get tired of this so they can reemerge.

Interestingly enough, President Trump is announcing agreements with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan which seems in many ways the appropriate policy. We have been there since 2001 and are in a stalemate with no alternative solution. It is also obvious that in short order the Taliban will overtly control that country as they now do covertly.

The problem is not military or even new terrorist attacks.

The twin towers, the Pentagon and the failed attempt of a fourth plane which was aimed at Washington, D.C. but thwarted by very brave passengers were the superficial targets which we have successfully avenged multiple times. The more important target was American Democracy. On this battlefield we have lost miserably. The attacks have succeeded in turning many of us against each other and defiled the most important processes of our culture. The horror arising from the attacks has done vastly more damage than the attacks themselves causing us to hunker down into camps, groups, divisions and gangs at war with each other. After the attacks the groups turned on each other and in the process each of us.

We, the most open, hospitable, welcoming people in the world have responded to the attacks by closing our boarders. We have turned on anyone and everyone who does not reflect the vision of a white, male, straight, privileged nation. We were attacked by people who do not look like us or believe like us so, we ban them, deport them and cage their children. And anyone who objects is often labeled a traitor. In this way the foreign terrorists have won. We have simply been doing their job for them with the emergence of domestic terrorism, white supremacy, mass murders and intimidation of all minorities.

We are, arguably, the country with the strongest history of democracy in the world and yet in the past four years voter suppression bills have passed legislatures in numerous states. The foreign terrorists did not do this; it was done in the open in our legislatures. We do the work of the terrorists for them.

We even elect a man who acts as an American Ayatollah (A Trumpatola) with an unholy alliance with the peoples of Evangelical Christianity, an extremist sect which no more represents Biblical Christianity than terrorists fairly represent the mainstream of Islam. Like an Iranian Ayatollah, The Trumpotola demands absolute loyalty in the face of all evidence, facts and data. As with the fundamentalists of Islam, no questioning of the faith (religious or political) is permitted by the extreme evangelicals. The Islamic Fundamentalists and Christian Evangelicals are mirror images of each other. We have done this to ourselves. As we descend into the realms of dictatorship and Christian Sharia Law it will probably not take very long for the foreign terrorists to ignore us. The more we descend the less threat we are to them. We will then be safe from them but not from ourselves. It wasn’t a suicide bomber that did it. It was just our own misguided, paranoid, hate filled retreat into the dictatorship of fascism.

The anti-biotic for this infection of domestic hate, violence and terrorism is the 2020 election with its opportunity to cleanse ourselves of at least the most odious aspects of its leadership. However, the antibiotic will have only one shot. By the 2024 election the infection will likely have mutated and will be immune to the antidote.

2 Comments

Your article causes me to remember the words of former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who wrote, “Anger is the white sugar of activism, it is a good rush, but doesn’t provide nourishment.”

PATHWAYS TO THE SOUL BLOG

I am starting this blog to create a space for dialogue about personal and spiritual growth. It is my plan to post once or twice per month and will respond to any comment within forty eight hours. I urge readers to comment on any of my postings with agreement, disagreement, questions or expansions. This blog is meant as a vehicle for dialogue, reflection and community.
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I hesitate to say these things but legal consultants make it clear that this is necessary. (Sigh)

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C. Graham Campbell, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist with over 30 years of clinical experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups.

He has specialties in working with grieving people, people experiencing panic attacks and those searching for deeper meaning and purpose in life. Increasingly his work focuses on spiritual themes.

In addition to being a psychologist he has a degree in theology and is trained in transpersonal and spiritual psychology.